Greens launch pro-Republican push

The political arm of one of the nation’s biggest environmental groups is looking for allies in the unlikeliest of places: the Republican Party.

The Environmental Defense Action Fund is rolling out a seven-figure ad campaign to aid green-minded Republicans in the midterm elections, part of a longer-term effort to find GOP partners on priorities like climate change. If it works, it would offer a break from the growing partisan split that green issues have encountered in recent years — not to mention the aggressively pro-Democratic efforts of groups like the League of Conservation Voters and billionaire Tom Steyer’s super PAC.

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The group faces stiff competition for a seat at the Republican table, especially given the increasingly dominant role of conservative tea party groups and the Koch brothers. Still, supporters of the effort say they see stirrings of conservationist Republican activism around the country, including among young conservatives and a pro-solar-power “green tea” alliance between Georgia tea party activists and the Sierra Club.

And the Action Fund served notice Thursday that it’s willing to champion Republican allies even at the expense of Democrats. It rolled out a $250,000 television, print and digital ad buy promoting Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.), whose Democratic challenger, Sean Eldridge, has support from other progressive groups.

The group hasn’t publicly identified other Republicans it plans to support in its 2014 effort, which it says is worth around $1 million so far.

“We want to create competition between the parties to be better on environmental issues, and that’s how we’re going to get to more ambitious action,” said Tony Kreindler, the Environmental Defense Action Fund’s senior director for strategic communications, who is overseeing the effort. He said the group wants to create a dynamic in which “both parties are coming to the table with their own ideas.”

Coddy Johnson, a former White House political strategist and national field director for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign, stressed that the campaign is meant to be a lengthy one. He calls climate change the “next logical issue” to pursue after the work that he and other Republicans did in recent years to support gay marriage.

“There’s a broader trend taking place in the electorate and among Republicans to think about the environment and conservatism and climate change as a key issue,” he said in an interview. “That doesn’t just get settled in 2014, but one we’ll be working on perhaps throughout our lifetimes.”

The group is the politically active offshoot of the Environmental Defense Fund, long regarded as one of the top moderate voices in the green movement. The pro-Republican campaign has the backing of a roster of prominent GOP donors, the group said, though Johnson was the only one it would name.

The ads supporting Gibson include a TV spot thanking him for voting for “smart policies” and “responsible solutions,” including “fighting to stop climate change by preserving common-sense limits on air pollution and supporting high-tech investments that lower energy costs and protect the environment.” It’s being paired with print and online banner ads in his district.

“He’s vocally supportive of action on climate and believes it’s a real problem, which is not something you see a lot on Capitol Hill these days,” Kreindler said. “So it’s the kind of guy we definitely want to thank as much as we can.”

The ads don’t mention Eldridge or the upcoming election.

The group had already made smaller investments during the primary season, spending $25,000 for a mail and phone effort thanking two Michigan state lawmakers from conservative districts for supporting conservation programs. It also spent $15,000 to thank four Republican state legislators in Kansas for opposing GOP efforts to abolish the state’s renewable electricity production mandate. All four Kansas Republicans and one of the Michigan lawmakers subsequently won their primaries.